


the foxes adventures in babysitting

by galaxiesofthem



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Babysitting, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Love, M/M, One Shot, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 03:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13732095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxiesofthem/pseuds/galaxiesofthem
Summary: Andrew and Neil with a baby? Nicky is sure he is losing his mind or about to be featured on Fox news (no pun intended), but instead he actually winds up having a pretty good time. An impactful time too.





	the foxes adventures in babysitting

**Author's Note:**

> a dumb lil one-shot i've had an idea about for forever. i feel like nicky doesn't get as much love as he deserves also so that's why it's in his pov (kind of). enjoy!

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Nicky cursed.

Matt Boyd stood beside him staring at the field in front of them, his mouth slightly more agape than the older of the two. “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Matt asked dumbfounded.

Nicky could only nod in answer still reeling from the shock himself. The first time in his life that the man could remember ever being speechless. Standing on the Exy field about three yards away from the pair was Nicky’s cousin, Andrew Minyard, and Andrew’s boyfriend, Neil. But that wasn’t the shock. At least not the shock of today. Today’s shock was something Nicky never would’ve expected. Strapped to Andrew’s chest by one of those absurd contraptions that could only be found at a Babies-R-Us was a baby boy the pair didn’t recognize.

“A human baby,” Matt whispered in awe.

His girlfriend, Dan, and the team’s captain slowed to a stop beside him and slapped his bicep. “Of course it’s a human baby,” she said through gritted teeth.

“To be fair to Boyd, with those two the human part is not implied.”

Matt had half a mind to snort at Nicky’s failed attempt at comedy, but the thought of Neil and Andrew having anything to do with a child was putting the team on edge. They couldn’t have adopted one, could they have? It seemed unlikely with their age and collective criminal history, but the Foxes had seen stranger things happen.

“What’s this?” Nicky called, the trio walking closer to meet the couple at half court.

Neil looked up at the sound of his teammates voices but didn’t seem worried at their shared anxious expressions. “This is James,” Neil introduced.

None of the Foxes said anything in response, though Dan at least tried to smile in greeting to the child she seemed to inherently fear. “And James is?” Their captain asked.

Andrew snorted a laugh at the look on her face surprising all of the Foxes but Neil. The small blonde’s boyfriend glared at him out of the corner of his eye as he turned to face his three closest friends. “James is Roland’s nephew,” Neil explained. “We’re babysitting.”

Nicky scoffed at the thought, but both Dan and Matt instantly relaxed. How much damage could these two really do in a single day? It was better than the alternative they had in mind. “Can we help?” Matt asked.

At the question there seemed to be a silent conversation shared between Neil and Andrew before the latter eventually shrugged his shoulders in response. The taller boy grinned wide, instantly brightening the field about a thousand watts and catching the baby’s attention just as quick. Matt had always been good with babies and so had Dan, and although Nicky had never spent time with them, he and Erik had spoken enough about adopting to warrant a desire for practice. It would be an entertaining day, he decided.

The second Coach Wymack entered the court for the day a few minutes later he stopped dead in his tracks, stared at the fives Foxes, and turned right around on his heels in the other direction. Smart man, Nicky thought. The fact that Kevin wasn’t yet at practice and neither of the other Foxes had yet to show meant Neil and Andrew had likely given someone a heads up. Nicky thought Neil was the more likely of the two to have mentioned it to at least Renee or Kevin. Either that or the team had done some serious partying without him last night. He had a feeling that the former was more true than the latter. Everyone knew Nicky was the life of the party.

“So like what do we do with it?” Nicky found himself asking.

You could play with toddlers and children. You could even manage to entertain teenagers depending on the breed of Andrew to Renee. Nicky had no idea what you could with a baby. Stare at it? Watch as it made incoherent noises and spit up on itself? The thought thoroughly disgusted him and instantly caused a yawn to ripple through him.

Surprisingly, Neil reached out a tentative finger to James’ opened hand and allowed the baby to grab a hold of him. If Nicky didn’t know better he could’ve sworn he saw a small quirk in Andrew’s lips at the sight before it instantly disappeared again.

“He’s a him not an it,” Neil corrected.

Nicky nodded, “Right. Right. Yeah. So what do we do with _him_?”

The other two more docile foxes beside him looked at him quizzically before Matt spoke up, “Have you never been around a baby before, Hemmick?”

“No.”

Dan smirked in amusement at Andrew’s answering of the question. That slight bit of participation in the conversation seemed to be all it took for her to reach over and allow James to take her finger in his other open hand. The baby stared between Neil and Dan almost confused as to how he could be holding on to the both of them at the same time. Dan loved it. Neil thought it was adorable. Andrew was promised fifty bucks and a carton of mint chocolate chip.

“You can’t be serious.”

All five Foxes turned around at the sound of Kevin stomping onto the court. He had his racket gripped tightly between his gloved hand and was all geared up except for his helmet. The look of pure anger and annoyance on his face was only a look reserved for the couple he directed his next sneer at.

“You said you wouldn’t be on the court with him.” He said in a loud voice.

Andrew stared blankly back at him whereas Neil simply shrugged his shoulders. “Where do babies like to go?” He asked, sounding genuinely confused as to why a baby wouldn’t enjoy being on an Exy court.

“How the fuck should I know, Neil! Take him to a park or something. Go back to the dorm for all I care. Thea is helping me practice.”

Nicky had to cover his smirk with his hand, and he felt the force of Dan’s foot slam into Matt’s almost as if it had slammed into his own to quiet her boyfriend from saying a word against Kevin’s relationship. Save for a few comments from the rest of the monsters, the team mostly kept their opinions about the couple to themselves. Kevin deserved to happy after all he had endured, and despite the usual torture they gave to each other the Foxes had wordlessly and unanimously agreed not to in this case.

As the group stomped off presumably towards Fox Tower, Nicky saw in his peripheral vision Andrew lift up a finger to flip Kevin off. He also watched as he began to walk backwards away from the court so as to lift baby James’ middle finger up in the air to their teammate. He averted his eyes, though, as his cousin caught eyes with him and gave a warning look that he’d seen too many times before to count. The last thing he wanted to do was tick Andrew off while he had a baby attached to himself. Nicky didn’t want to think about how many horrible ways that could end.

 

The detour to Fox Tower only lasted for about an hour. Aaron was out with his girlfriend, Katelyn, so the monsters room was completely empty and Andrew begrudging allowed Matt and Dan in. The only problem was Allison had heard about the baby too. And Renee. Without training or a game attached Nicky had never seen Allison run so fast. He also didn’t think she seemed like the type to care about babies.

“Oh my God! He’s so cute!” She squealed.

Very openly Neil flinched at the high pitch timbre of her voice but Allison didn’t stop. She continued babbling away in an obnoxious voice that they would all surely make fun of her later over. While Matt, Dan, and Nicky were thoroughly amused by the two girls cooing over little James, Neil and Andrew just wanted to get out of here. Again the two shared a nonverbal communication that resulted in Andrew shaking his head no and Neil slouching his shoulders ever so slightly.

“Didn’t Kevin suggest the park?” Nicky offered up. Even if he had no idea what the couple had conveyed in a few simple looks, he got the gist of it. They wanted these Foxes out of their room, and more specifically they wanted Allison to stop cooing at Andrew’s chest.

Allison scrunched her nose up in disgust at the mere suggestion of going to a park in the outfit or the shoes she was wearing. “I guess Renee and I will see what Kevin and Thea are up to,” she said suggestively.

They left the room as quickly as they had entered, and Nicky could see Neil visibly sigh in relief. He knew it wasn’t that Neil didn’t like Allison or Renee. Allison was one of Neil's best friends but the over excitement and squealing just got a bit too much for him every once in a while.

“Do babies like the park?” Neil asked.

Matt cocked his head to the side to stare at James for a minute. Nicky could’ve sworn the boy thought they were having some sort of telepathic conversation in the same vein as Neil and Andrew before Matt snapped his fingers and turned to face them.

“Yep. Why not? Fresh air, swings, birds, large open spaces. What’s not to love?”

This time Nicky didn’t have to be paying attention to notice the look of utter horror on Neil’s face. The idea of a large open space with no escape that didn’t include an Exy court was a nightmare to Neil Josten. What Nicky also knew that so as to seem as normal as the rest of them - normalish, really - that Neil would suck it up and go anyway.

That’s how these five Foxes, some of which rarely ever had anything to do with the others, found themselves at a park about ten minutes into town not much later. Now Matt had the baby strapped to his chest instead of Andrew and was swinging on one of the only open swings on the playground. Andrew and Neil were sharing a cigarette not to far away, and Nicky noticed that Andrew’s eyes never left Matt or the baby once even as he responded to whatever Neil was saying. Dan ran around the rest of the playground playing with children that she obviously didn’t know. And then there was Nicky.

If he was being honest with himself, Nicky always thought he was a baby guy. Whenever the conversation of kids came up with Erik there was always no doubt that they would have them eventually. It was just that first Nicky would have to get rid of the two kids he was already in charge of. He figured with Neil and Katelyn that that was all pretty much already settled and good to go. Although he’d never spent time with anyone over the age of five or six since he was five or six, he always thought he’d do a pretty good job as a dad. He no longer thought that.

With such a feeling of longing, he watched as Dan rejoined Matt on the swings with the quickest of kisses that she likely took for granted. She gave baby James a light pat on the head and laughed as he smiled up at her. As their captain sat beside her boyfriend, Nicky caught a glimpse of Andrew stomping out his cigarette and turning his eyes away from the playground. Well it looks like Andrew trusts Dan more than he’s willing to admit, Nicky thought with a smirk.

“How’s the baby?” Neil asked, walking up to stand beside him.

The smaller of the couple stood back another couple of feet almost as if he were Neil’s bodyguard rather than his boyfriend. “Good, I think. Dan and Matt are playing with him.” Nicky replied. He didn’t know why he said that. Surely Neil had eyes and could see the pair in front of him.

“They’d make good parents one day,” Nicky continued on.

The younger boy next to him smiled, more to himself, at the thought. Neil had always thought so too, but he’d never said as much to them or anyone else for that matter. He didn’t think Matt would take the comment as a compliment. He correctly assumed that the man would only feel pressure over something like that.

“Yeah.” Neil agreed in what was almost a whisper.

As the three continued to look on at the Upperclassmen playing with James, Nicky felt a pang of something deep in his chest. He couldn’t describe it, but instantly knew that he needed to call Erik. It was 2 o’clock in the afternoon South Carolina time which meant that in Germany it was 8 o’clock at night. This was a few hours early than the usual time the two talked on the phone at night, but Nicky didn’t think Erik would mind. Wordlessly, he excused himself away from Andrew and Neil to sit at a bench far enough away so that the two wouldn’t hear him. Sometimes it annoyed Nicky that the two could speak German as well as he could.

After the third ring, Erik picked up the phone.

“Hi baby,” he said.

Nicky felt an instant relaxation at hearing the man’s voice and sighed. “Hi.”

“What’s wrong?” Erik asked. Another thing Nicky appreciated about the man, and there was a never ending list of things, was his ability to always sense when something was wrong.

Again Nicky sighed, a bit deeper this time. “It’s nothing,” he said. “Just Andrew and Neil are babysitting Roland’s nephew and I’m realizing just how little I know about kids.”

Erik’s response was immediate but not one that Nicky had necessarily been expecting. “Back up for a moment, did you say that Andrew and Neil were babysitting a kid?” He asked exasperatedly and a little skeptically too.

Snorting out a laugh Nicky responded, “Yes. A baby. They’re surprisingly pretty good at it which makes it suck all the more that I’m not.”

“Baby,” Erik replied. “There’s nothing wrong with not knowing how to handle babies. I most definitely do not. That’s why they give you nine months to figure it out.”

Although Nicky appreciated his boyfriend’s attempt at humor he still wasn’t convinced that their ideal future life wasn’t about to be ruined by his inability to connect with baby James. This was another thing that Erik could sense even thousands of miles away; he cleared his throat to speak again.

“Listen to me Nicholas Esteban Hemmick. Not only is it completely different when it’s your child, but you’ve done something a hell of a lot harder than handle a baby,” Erik said.

Nicky held the phone to his ear a little perplexed. “Yeah? What’s that?” He asked.

“You handled Aaron and Andrew Minyard.”

And it was as if Nicky’s entire worldview had changed in that instant. He had never looked at himself as being more than the twins’ guardian solely on paper. Of course he cared about them. He even loved them, though he would never admit that to anyone but Erik. The thing was they were already fully formed and completely damaged individuals by the time they came to him. Nicky may not have raised them or been like a parent, but he definitely did something far more difficult than he imagined caring for a baby would be.

“If you can do that,” Erik said, “you can do just about anything.”

Just as he had expected, talking to Erik had made everything better. If only he could truly show him the gratitude he held in that moment. Instead, he stared off at the two pairs of couples coming together in the middle of the playground. He watched as Neil strapped the baby back onto Andrew’s chest with the utmost of care and delicacy. He made an audible gasp as Andrew allowed the baby to clutch his finger and didn’t try to pry his hand away from James’.

“You know what?” He said to Erik. “You’re right. Thank you. I love you.” Simple words that held so much more meaning behind them than Nicky could ever even begin to articulate.

Over the line Nicky could hear Erik sigh into the receiver and shuffle around the house a bit before he replied. “So let’s get back to something you said before. Andrew and Neil with a baby,” Erik said. “I want details.”

And Nicky happily provided them.

When the day came to a close a few short hours later, Nicky was on much better terms with baby James. He’d even garnered a few smiles from the baby before Roland picked him up outside of Fox Tower a little before six pm. The Foxes stuck around to wave goodbye as Andrew sneered and said, “He can’t understand you.” They didn’t care, though.

The second the SUV drove out of sight, Matt slung an arm around Dan and suggested they start practicing on making one of those. Nicky tried not to gag at the thought of heterosexual sex even if it was between two people as attractive as Dan and Matt. Neil and Andrew had another one of their verbal conversations before disappearing out of sight, holding hands only as they entered the building and thought Nicky could no longer see. Nicky still had know idea where they went, but he knew that they wouldn’t be in the room when he went up in a few minutes.

With the events of the day behind him, Nicky took a deep sigh of relief at things not going nearly as wrong as he had expected them to. Logically he knew that even if Neil and Andrew lasted past college that the two would never adopt a baby or even a fully formed child. That didn’t stop him from thinking that they would make good parents, though. Again something that he could only ever share with Erik if he didn’t want to die a tragic death seconds after saying so.

As he stood at the edge of the curb in front of Fox Tower Nicky let his mind wander ever so slightly as it usually did. He imagined all the possibilities that his life had to offer after this life he was currently living. And since, contrary to popular belief, Nicky wasn’t as selfish as he seemed he let his mind wander to the future lives of all the Foxes and Coach Wymack and Abby too. He thought that most certainly they would all have it pretty well going forward. I mean it couldn’t get much worse than the last year that they had endured.

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment?? kudos?? i have a fragile writer's soul so please be kind with your criticism!


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